Live Like You Mean It by Ava Stone

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Brody is enjoying the stereotypical rockstar lifestyle and isn't looking to slow down anytime soon. But he meets Leah, struggling single mom and she falls for him. But will Brody feel the same? Find the official description on Goodreads.

Live Like You Mean It was told from the first person perspective. It was a good choice and the author wrote the book really well. The characters were well created and easily able to be understood or at least empathized with. Some you felt more for than others. It was very easy to get intertwined into the character's lives. There were some points where you were disappointed in characters, and that's what made the book interesting to read. You were invested in the characters and their lives. 

The plot was also well done. It moved at a good pace and was not slow at any point. Live Like You Mean It was a good book that was well written. 

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Twisted by Lola Smirnova

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Back in the 90’s, the corrupt post-Soviet Ukraine with its faltering economy, is thrown into a devastating depression. Times are hard. Opportunities are scarce. 

Three eager young sisters – Natalia, Lena and Julia - dream of a better life and weigh their options: do they stay and struggle like their parents, or join scores of their compatriots in the sex trade in glittering western European cities, who earn in a night what they’d take several months to earn at home? Naive and tempted by the allure of 'quick' money, the girls set off on an adventure that changes their lives forever... 

For sensible, resilient and calculating Lena and Natalia, the transition to the underworld of Luxembourg’s deceptive champagne bars is eye-opening, but smooth. But for fragile, brittle Julia, haunted by a childhood assault, the change is more than just vocational. Struggling to adapt, she turns to alcohol and drugs, exposing herself to increasing danger and depravity; and, ultimately, betrayal, when a deceitful client, who claims to love her, drugs her and cleans her out. 

Despite her sisters’ best efforts to intervene, she finds herself in Istanbul – culturally a world apart – in an attempt to make back the money and self-respect she’s lost. Vulnerable without the protection of Luxembourg’s champagne bars, she descends into a hell of drugs and high-risk sex until, at the novel’s terrible climax, a kidnapping, brutal assault and one-sided justice system lead to her imprisonment and a threat of deportation. 

How will Natalia and Lena save Julia? Find the official description on Goodreads.

This was definitely a  darker book. It was very realistic in the way that things happened that you believed could actually happen to a person in real life. And the characters were all....like they could have been people you knew. And that really brought this book home to me. It was the characters that had trouble and yet they were still very likable. Take Julia for example. In a different book she might have been portrayed as the problem or bad character but this book is told from her perspective and goes to show that there's always a story.

The writing itself was captivating. It drew you in, held you captive and didn't let you go. The first person narrative was enjoyable as it felt as if Julia was actually telling the story to you after the fact, as if it was a cautionary tale or you were a friend that hadn't been there for that part of her life. This made it a very familiar way to tell the story and I enjoyed it.

Twisted was a dark read but it does show the sex trade in a different light. It certainly gives a new perspective. 

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The Appeal of Evil by Pembroke Sinclair

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"For every tender action, he always followed it up with abandonment."- Pembroke Sinclair, The Appeal of Evil

Katie has a choice to make. Go with the demon who has kept his promises to her or go with the boy who has always broken his promises and her heart. It's a difficult decision, not to be made easily. Especially because of what she'll have to give up. Find the official description on Goodreads.

Many of the actions and reactions in The Appeal of Evil were portrayed realistically and it seemed easy to slip into the lives of the main characters. The only real issue that I had with the characters of The Appeal of Evil is that throughout most of the book I was honestly supremely annoyed with Katie. There were a few moments where I was excited for her and happy with her but most of the time, she just annoyed me. Most likely because of the fact that her thoughts could go around in circles, or she started leaning to make a decision that I thought crazy. Whatever it was I found it hard to read much of the book because of the annoying behavior of Katie.

The writing was really well done, and it was smooth. Not to mention that Pembroke Sinclair also portrayed the struggle between good and evil as difficult. Many times the main characters almost seem to find it easy to choose the side of good or the good guy. But it was clear that Katie wasn't exactly happy with the good guys and she had reason not to be. There was a difficulty between choosing what she thought right and her wish for someone to treat her the way she felt she deserved to be. It was an interesting dilemma, and I liked the difficulty that it was treated as.

The debate between good and evil is an interesting read and you should give it a chance.

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